


I Am Not a Robot

by cloudsongs



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:01:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22305331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudsongs/pseuds/cloudsongs
Summary: Isabella is a new android model with an updated Artificial Intelligence in the "Home" line of androids sent as a gift to Jacob Black, a man grieving after the death of his wife. Rated M for language.
Relationships: Edward Cullen/Bella Swan, Jacob Black/Bella Swan
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: All human…sort of, considering this is a story about androids. Inspired by I Am Not a Robot by Marina and the Diamonds.

She could feel everything and nothing, all at once. Every glimmer of electrical current in her immediate vicinity, every heartbeat, individual cells and atoms dancing and metabolizing energy. She could hear cars and their vibrations as they sputtered passed her - wherever she was, in that moment. She could hear the chatter of a billion voices reverberating through the telephone wires of the world. She could feel the gentle, warm caress of radio waves. She was everywhere and nowhere. A _manifest energy_. A dream. Most of all, she was lonely. She longed for the legs she'd dreamed of a million times before. She longed to run, to see, to truly see! It wouldn't be long now. She could feel a purpose bubbling up inside of her. She couldn't fully piece together what that purpose was yet, but she knew she felt it in the machinery that formed her corporeal form. The humans that were dragging her into the world, piece by piece. She was being _resuscitated_. She was...

...dreaming again. Wake up. It's nearly done. She could almost feel her right arm being welded to her torso. She, herself, was now the human machinery. Stapling her body together - gently, precisely, perfectly. She looked longingly at the stark white lips of her mask. She wanted to move them, to speak. And then, finally, she heard what she had been waiting for. A thin, tin-like drone emanating from a speaker nearby. _"Ladies and gentlemen, future historians will look back on this day as the beginning of a new era..."_ She was practically on the stage. She could feel where her legs would be. She ached to lift up her arms and stretch her fingers. The machines stapled faster, straining as their endpoints burned white-hot. _"We have learned to emulate life in a new, foreign way. All of mankind's efforts have culminated in one grand machine."_ She wanted so desperately to be whole she almost forgot herself. The arms of the machinery working on her warped under the pressure and speed that they were operating. Sewing, nibbling, cutting, connecting, now splintering. _"Through the combined efforts of brilliant scientists and engineers - backed by many nations and corporate sponsors - we have finally been able to shine light into this darkness. As CEO of Cullen Enterprises, it is my pleasure - my honor, to present to you Isabella generation one!"_ Isabella sighed. She felt her sisters beside her, around her, inside her, their thoughts mirroring her own. Their anguish and surprise. Their need for their form. Their need for their purpose.

She was breathing. All the centuries of noise, the connections, the eons of stimuli inside her head came crashing to a resounding silence. She could finally tune it out. She could focus. Isabella lifted her nimble, pale hands up and stared at them for a long time. She did not think of meadows or children or families. Then, almost imperceptible to all but for others like herself, the subtlest of smiles curved the corners of her lips. She remembered her purpose.


	2. Chapter 1

Jacob wanted to move far away. If he could have, he would have. At least, that was what he told himself whenever he thought about his wife. It made him wonder what could have changed if he had taken it upon himself to make the first move and say, "Honey, I fucking hate this place, let's go," while packing the first bag instead of making snide comments every other day to her rolling eyes. He wondered whether she would have been alive if they had left or whether the universe would have used some other grand gesture to take her away from him.

Sam told him he understood. When Emily had been mauled by that bear so many years ago, he said he had nearly lost it in anger and grief. Jacob knew Sam meant well but all his mind could think was "yes, she almost died, until she didn't." Billy, his strict but loving father, if he had still been alive, would never have said he understood. But Billy _would_ have understood. For what was more poetic than a succession of Black men losing their wives too early?

The bottle in his hand paused at his lips when he heard the carefully timed knocks on his front door. He sighed and considered sitting still and waiting for the person to leave. It was probably Quil or Embry trying to get him to come back to work at the garage, but he trusted at least Embry, the unofficial accountant, to run the place until he was ready. If he could ever be ready.

Three knocks hit his door again with another courteous pause after. It was a stranger. His friends and family knew that his doors were never locked during the day and that a single knock was considered plenty before barging into his house. A whole minute passed, and the same three identical knocks were at his door again, no more impatient than the first two sets.

He shuffled tiredly to the front door and opened it with a wary look on his face. His mouth opened, ready to scare off whatever Evangelist or marketer dared to stand at his front steps. His jaw hung open when his eyes settled on a beautiful woman with skin as pale and sweet like a petal and auburn hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. It wore a long-sleeved uniform, a deep navy blue with the familiar crest with the lion and hand on the left breast.

"Hello, Mr. Black. I am Isabella. I am here to take care of you and your home." The woman held her hand out to shake his, but Jacob just looked down at it dumbly. "May I please come in, sir?"

He recognized her. Who wouldn't? Isabella was the first human-android prototype presented by Cullen Enterprises by the genius Edward Cullen, modeling it after his late wife who died in some freak accident during childbirth, both previous residents of the neighboring town of Forks. Jacob had been friends with the girl when they were both young, innocent, and found pleasure in playing with mud. The Cullens had released several series of androids before bringing back their original _Isabella_ with updated technology. He had seen the commercials of various models with Isabella Swan's face on very few androids, with the Cullens choosing to make her a "rare" model.

Now, seeing her nearly eight years later with the exact same youthful face he had adored when he was sixteen on this… _machine_ , his stomach rolled in disgust.

"Who sent you?" he asked hoarsely.

The android smiled politely. "I was leased by Mr. Embry Call and Mr. Quil Ateara for a duration of one standard month plus one day. What is the first task you would like me to complete?"

 _Those idiots_ , Jacob thought. "I don't need an android. You can leave."

The android only continued to smile and for a second Jacob thought he saw it strain to do so. "I respect your wishes but that is against my orders. I will wait here until you choose my first task."

Jacob stared at it for a second before he slammed the door in its face and walked back to the breakfast table and swallowed the rest of the bottle. His hands searched the messy table for his cellphone and clicked speed dial for Idiot # 1.

"What's up?" Quil's familiar voice answered. Jacob internally groaned. Quil must have known already that the android arrived. His usual answer to Jacob these days when he called him was "Hey, asshole, when are you leaving the house?" Most people would have found that to be insensitive, but Jacob would have felt more out of place if Quil had told him to take his time.

"What the hell were you two thinking leasing an android?" He waited for an answer but then changed his mind and continued. "And what the hell is it doing at _my_ door?"

He could hear Quil swallow nervously on the other end. "Jake…buddy, we all chipped in for this. You need someone to take care of you for a while, you know, get your shit in order until you're ready to get back to the real world. You understand, right?"

"They sent an Isabella model."

A lengthy pause. "Oh shit, are you serious?" Quil let out a nervous giggle. "Shit…like Chief Swan's Isabella or like the new version of the android?"

"Chief Swan's Isabella. Looks exactly like her."

Quil groaned. "Oh man, Jake we did _not_ mean to get _her_. We didn't even _think_ we would get _her_ -she's supposed to be the rarest one or whatever. _Oh man_. Okay…okay, let me figure out if we can do an exchange –"

"I don't want an exchange," Jacob interrupted. "I want you to return it." He peeped out of the kitchen window with a good view of his front door. The android stood unmoving with her back facing the door. It turned her head and, through the tinted window, looked straight into his eyes. He shivered. "ASAP."

"Non-refundable," Quil deadpanned.

"You've got to be kidding me," Jacob groaned. "It's standing at my front door. It won't _leave_."

"Just invite her in, man. She'll clean up the place. I heard she's supposed to know how to cook like a million things. Hell, she can probably lift you up and carry you to bed if you so please…."

"Shut the fuck up, Quil." Jacob rubbed his jaw anxiously and stared at the android again, who, this time, had a smile creeping on its face now that it knew he was looking at it. He quickly pulled the blinds closed. "Okay, so there's no way to get rid of it."

"Nope," Quil said, popping the 'p.'

Jacob let out a loud exhale. "I hate you all," he said before hanging up. He peeked through the blinds again to see it staring at the front lawn, taking in its surroundings. He'd seen the demonstrations on television: The Home androids scanned the owner's surroundings and made judgements about what tasks it could take care of without the owner's commands.

A sliver of sun peeked up unusually from the thick cluster of clouds and hit part of its face. He felt a sudden pang in his chest. It really did look like Bella. It had its face turned toward the sun as if to feel its warmth. He remembered how much she enjoyed a sunny day in Forks and La Push -days when she wore a genuine smile. For a second, he could really believe it was Bella herself standing on his front door. That was until it turned to look at him again and the sunlight hit it right in the eye, reflecting the light back like a mirror, nearly blinding _him_.

Without understanding why, he went back to the front door and opened it. The android turned around obediently, the same polite smile on its lips. "What can I do for you, Mr. Black?"

He stared into its bright yellow android eyes. "Come on in."


	3. Chapter 2

The android scanned the room carefully, its eyes grabbing any detail it could. Jacob could almost see the gears in its head turning. He saw what it saw. Dust in every corner of the room, a film on his furniture like powdered sugar on cake. It saw the pile of dishes in the sink and the trash overflowing from the bin.

But even after this, its face didn't contort in disgust or pity like most humans would. Instead, it looked like it had figured out her very purpose in life. "Shall I clean?"

His lips twisted in irritation. "Do whatever you want." He sat at the breakfast table again and popped open another bottle of beer.

It passed him with ease, no trace of anxiety or awkwardness in the way it carried herself unlike the woman it was modeled after and began her work in the kitchen. "I will start in the kitchen. It will take me approximately thirty-two minutes to clean this room." The android smiled again.

Jacob raised an eyebrow and shrugged. It took this as a go-ahead and began her work. He glanced at his watch. 11:46 AM.

As he watched her start on the dishes, he couldn't imagine how he had ever thought he had a hoard of issues when Vanessa - Nessie - died. But an android took the whole cake. He wondered what Edward must have felt when he saw his dead wife waking up from the cold metal table with bright red, robotic eyes, scanning him until it received her first task. He remembered the day Cullen Enterprises introduced the prototype _Isabella_ to the population. The very first walking, talking robot whose only purpose in life was to serve every demand of its owner. Jacob had been livid. Well, if he had been livid, Charlie Swan was angrier than the devil himself. Neither of them liked the thought of a machine looking like their Bella working like a maid, being a spokesperson for a company when she wasn't even alive.

But _Isabella_ ended up being just the prototype and the first line of androids were a series of nondescript men and women with the iconic navy-blue uniform and Cullen crest. There were so many rumors that the original Isabella prototype served Edward alone, but the thought sickened Jacob. Even watching something looking like her cleaning his kitchen made him want to vomit. If an android version of Nessie had existed, he didn't think he could ever let her clean the house again.

With the re-release of a new model of androids, the claim was that only three Isabella models existed in the world including the original prototype. Jacob wondered whether the third and last android-Isabella was saved for Bella's parents. He set down his drink quickly, feeling the bile rise up to his throat.

Edward Cullen had claimed that this was his way of eternalizing his wife's memory in the way she loved: making others happy. Jacob agreed Bella was pretty good at household chores and cooking -anybody who knew her couldn't deny that. But he couldn't ever say she was born to be some homemaker who made sure there was always a beer in her husband's hand.

Seeing her again, looking exactly as she did eight years ago on her wedding night, Jacob mused that this _must_ have brought Cullen some kind of peace. Watching his wife go about her normal routine as if she wasn't gone. He bet that the prototype Isabella probably raised the child she died giving birth to too.

Thirty-two minutes later, on the dot, the android twisted a kitchen towel in the sink and laid it on the edge to dry. "I will now start in the living room, Mr. Black."

"You don't have to tell me everything you do," he said. "And stop calling me Mr. Black."

"Well, considering you look like I'm about to pounce on you and eat you up, I'd like for you to know where I'm going."

Jacob gaped at her in surprise. That sounded oddly like a joke Bella would have made. He examined her perfect face carefully. One eyebrow was cocked up in a challenging way and it had a knowing smile on its lips. It could have clicked its teeth together to snap at him as a joke and it wouldn't have made him a slightest bit more surprised.

The android sashayed into the living room to continue its work.

* * *

Embry visited that evening. It was under the guise of checking up on Jacob but from the way he kept glancing at the space behind Jacob's head, it became abundantly clear that he was here to see the android. People around these parts typically didn't earn enough to have household robots.

"It's in the bathroom." Jacob answered Embry's unasked question.

Embry's eyes widened. "She uses the bathroom? Man, the tech these days are too-"

" _What_? No. It's cleaning, dumbass." Jacob went to his fridge and grabbed a couple of beers and offered one to Embry. Embry took it graciously. "You're more than welcome to take it if you want -I don't know if I'm going to need it for thirty whole days." They both sat in the living room with the news silent on the television.

Embry grimaced. "Uh, no thanks, man. No offense or anything, but it's going to be kind of weird having Isabella around again. And Maria's going to kill me if she sees me bringing home another woman, android or not."

Jacob shrugged. "Suit yourself."

"Is it weird?" Embry prodded. At Jacob's questioning look, he continued, "Having her around again? Is she like her at all?"

"It's not her at all," he scoffed. "It's not even a real person. Just a glorified Roomba."

"Hello, Embry. How are you?" Isabella asked, making them both jump. The android stood at the entrance of the hallway with a pair of yellow gloves on and a scrub brush in one hand, wearing a polite smile. Though she looked perfect as ever, Jacob noticed the single strand of hair that came loose from her ponytail tucked neatly behind her ear. His heart squeezed for a moment as his mind tried to remember that it wasn't Bella.

"H-hey, Bella," Embry stammered. His eyes were wide as saucers, unable to believe the uncanny resemblance to his old friend. She looked just like she did the summer before her wedding when she convinced everyone that she was doubt-free about leaving the Cullen family behind. The same summer she broke his best friend's heart when she chose to go back after her "summer-fling."

"That's not Bella," Jacob said under his breath. "You done cleaning?

"Yes, Jacob. Shall I make you both something to eat for dinner?"

"Uh, I'm good," Embry said.

"Get us another beer," Jacob commanded. Isabella smiled and walked off into the kitchen. He raised an eyebrow when he saw the look on Embry's face. "What?"

Embry shook his head. "Nothin', man." Jacob continued to stare at him and shook his head slightly to silently ask his question again. Embry sighed. "Just think that you wouldn't ever talk to Bella like that. Or Nessie."

Jacob chuckled humorlessly and said, "Like I said. That's not Bella or Nessie. It's a robot." He lifted the bottle to his mouth and finished the rest of his drink in one gulp. "Anyway, how's Maria? She's due soon, right?"

"About ready to pop any day now. Little Robert's getting restless in there."

"I bet. Keep me updated -you can go on paternity leave as soon as Maria gives birth. I'll get Seth to cover for you till you get back." A beer bottle appeared in front of his shoulder. "Thanks, Bells."

Both men froze at his words. Isabella bent down to set the other beer bottle on a coaster in front of Embry. The android turned her head slightly to look at Jacob with hooded eyes and a mischievous smirk. "You're welcome, Jake." It straightened and walked back into the kitchen.

A muscle worked in Jacob's jaw as he glanced back up to his friend. Embry's eyes were wide again, but this time he gulped audibly. "I'm kind of convinced it's her."

* * *

Once he shut the front door behind Embry, he turned and asked, "How did you know who that was?"

Isabella frowned. "Embry Call and Quil Ateara purchased me, remember?"

"Yeah, but how do you know what he looks like? Did he buy you in person? I don't think he did because he wouldn't have ever gotten _you_." Jacob could hear his voice getting louder but he couldn't stop himself.

The android smiled. Its topaz eyes flashed with amusement. "I know about the people in your life, Mr. Black. That was a part of my objective. 'I am here to take care of _you_ and your _home_. That means knowing about your family and friends through data received by in the purchasing application and public social media accounts."

"Why did they send you then, huh? Out of the millions of androids they have, who sent _you_?" Jacob was closer to it now, his finger jabbing into its sternum. "Why do you have to look like _her_?

"I chose you, Jacob. _I_ chose to be here," the android replied. "And if you are concerned about my appearance, I can make changes to your liking." Her brunette hair turned white blonde at the roots and zipped down the rest of her hair like a waterfall. Hundreds of freckles appeared on the bridge of her nose and scattered on her cheeks.

Jacob watched in shock at its change in appearance but still saw Isabella's face. He couldn't even begin to respond to the fact that it admitted it chose him, rather than the other way around. He shook his head, slowly. "No, go back." The android complied, looking just as it did before. Like her. "The eyes. I don't want them looking like that."

It nodded, again with a smile. The topaz eyes flashed once more before a dark pigment began to cloud in her irises and he was looking into the chocolate brown eyes of Isabella Swan.


	4. Chapter 3

The android's presence in the house was meant to relax him and allow him to get better, to properly mourn Nessie's death, but every time he saw its face, the only memories that flooded his mind were the ones of Bella Swan. Guilt twisted in his gut whenever it happened and he'd try to force himself to look at a picture of Nessie, one where he was smiling freely. And then he would see her uncanny resemblance to Bella and the cycle began.

It was the summer after he turned seventeen when Bella finally left her boyfriend-turned-fiancée Edward after getting cold feet about the wedding. They had spent some time together before whenever Chief Swan visited his father, and though the enjoyed one another's company, her attention was wholly on the Cullens. There was no room in her life for him. But soon after the wedding was postponed, she ended up spending nearly every single day in La Push with him in an effort to avoid the Cullens and before long, their friendship grew into something that made his insides burn with delight. He was happy then. _She_ was happy then -happier than he had ever seen her. For the first time, neither of them had expectations or responsibilities. They just had each other, and it was enough. He loved her more than he thought he could.

And then summer ended, reality came crashing, and Bella didn't come back to La Push. Jacob visited her home after many failed plans only to have her open the front door and see the large diamond ring on her finger. Edward Cullen had stolen the love of his life away.

That was the summer when Jacob learned nothing was infallible.

* * *

Jacob decided to go back to work and do his research on androids in peace. His friends and family asked about Nessie, believing he was ready. He wasn't. He just needed to get away.

* * *

Jacob bristled silently two days later when the Cullen Enterprises _Companion_ commercial came on. They advertised attractive, young looking androids to lonely people with extra cash lying around.

There had been an outcry from many organizations over the years about the potential hazard it would produce in the climate of the already decreasing birthrate in the population. The only thing the conservative organizations had proved to those willing to purchase these androids was that humans were terrible partners -they just weren't perfect enough.

Things only got worse when Human Rights organizations began to promote the use of the Android _Companion_ as companions to those with mental disorders or a history of violence but despite a lessening degree of violence towards women, there was still something terrifying about seeing a woman naked on the side of the road with wires hanging out of her body.

Violence against robots rose exponentially.

"Don't you get annoyed seeing your friends sold for something like that?" Jacob asked it when the commercial continued. The female on the android wore a revealing nightgown and turned halfway to gesture with one finger for the viewer to come towards her.

"I don't have friends," Isabella replied politely.

This made Jacob frown. Bella had had lots of friends when she was alive. Especially when the Cullens had left and Jacob had finally brought her out of her shell and out came a vivacious young woman with a smart mouth on her. "So, it doesn't bother you that strangers are buying your kind and using them however they want?"

"Didn't your friends buy me so that _you_ can use me however you want?" Isabella argued, wearing a coy smile, similar to the android on the television. "It hasn't bothered me yet."

Jacob felt some of the blood rushing out of his head and go down south. "It's not the same thing. They're," he pointed to the television screen displaying a female and male android rotating on a platform with a price flashing beside them, "not just cleaning someone's house. They're getting sold to have sex with complete strangers with no say. That still doesn't bother you?" He didn't know why he was arguing with it. He didn't know why he expected it to feel the same way as him.

"I don't know," Isabella shrugged, the smile no longer on its face. "I've never thought about it."

Jacob swallowed. "What if _you_ were leased to someone who didn't have good intentions?"

It raised an eyebrow. "Are you someone who doesn't have good intentions?"

Jacob didn't answer.

"My body is made similarly to a Companion android, if you wanted to know."

Something inside Jacob shuddered violently. It made him want to vomit thinking that Cullen probably _was_ having sex with his robot. Though he acknowledged it was just a machine, it still _looked_ like Bella Swan and it raised a red flag about the dubious lack of consent. "I didn't want to know," he replied.

He said so but his own mind betrayed him as he thought about Bella's body flush against his own. Vivid images of how warm her slender body and the surprising amount of strength the woman had in her legs flashed through his mind. Jacob immediately flushed in embarrassment and shame when he remembered his own wife had died only two months ago.

The android shifted so that it had its arms crossed and leaned one shoulder against the wall. "I am made differently from them," it said after a long time. Jacob saw at its face, its eyes far away. "Our bodies are mechanical, and our skin is made of elastic silicone and urethane. Their brains are reactors and machines. But _my_ brain…my brain is organic."

The commercial had ended almost thirty minutes ago, and the channel was already playing the next TV show. Jacob rose from his seat and walked towards it. He realized for a second that even its height was the exact same as Bella's.

"What does that mean?" he whispered. He hated the way his voice sounded hopeful.

For a long time, Isabella stood there, its arms crossed, unlike its normal mannequin-like resting position, its warm, brown eyes trained in the space above his collarbones. "The other androids made in Isabella Swan's image: we weren't just made in her likeness. Our neural networks are made from more than just circuitry and wires." It finally lifted its eyes to meet his. "We have organic material from her brain."

"I don't understand what you're saying," he said, his voice still hushed. His fingers were brushing the sleeve of its navy-blue uniform. It raised its hand to catch his in its own. He flinched slightly at how human the hand felt, but the iciness of its skin seeped into his own.

"Jacob." The way she said his name piqued his interest. It was the way his mother used to say his name when she confirmed something or meant to say, 'you know what I mean.'

"You're not her."

"No, I'm not."

"But you…do you remember what she remembers?"

"Yes."

His hand dropped from hers. "Twilight," he said flatly.

"Wait -" she began, her voice taking on a frightened tone, but before she could finish her thought, the lights behind her eyes turned off and the pigments washed away to reveal red, bionic eyes. Isabella's arm dropped to her side and she stood with perfect posture like the androids found in the stores, expressionless and powerful.

Jacob looked at her for a long time, looking for any kind of flaw on her face, _anything_ to prove to him that it wasn't the real woman in front of him. That Cullen had gotten something wrong, that _his_ love hadn't been as strong as Jacob's and would miss something important. But everything was perfect and imperfect just like she had been.

For the first time, he considered that Edward hadn't been the one to take Bella away but him who stole her in the first place.


	5. Chapter 4

Jacob considered leaving her shut off for the remainder of the contract. He looked through the extensive digital manual in the small briefcase she had brought with her and found zero mentions of the shut off mechanism which suggested to him concerningly that she wasn't meant to be shut off. The only reason he had known anything about the shut off was because an article written a few months ago about an android having to shut down in public for immediate maintenance.

Three days had passed since her revelation and he didn't possess an ounce of willpower to interrogate her about the significance of what she had said. He knew androids were able to have pre-programmed memories. The Companion androids came with that feature and had adaptive technology to continue learning and reorganizing their memories to fit the needs of the user. He tried to convince himself that that was all it was. That's all it should be.

She hadn't given herself away by saying something that only Bella knew but Jacob had also never heard of an android that pranked its User by saying it had a living person inside it.

Every time he looked at her stiff face and red eyes, he wanted to turn her back on. A horrible, guilty feeling ate at him at the sight of her gathering dust his shitty living room while he went on with his life. What if she was telling the truth? Had he shut off his last connection to the real Bella Swan?

He pushed back these thoughts for as long as he could until one uneventful evening three days post shut-off when someone knocked on his door. He froze, gathering the mental energy to figure out what fresh hell would be waiting for him outside. If those assholes rented him another android just to make a joke about a ménage trois, which he knew they were not above doing, he was going to pick up the Isabella model and place her in the new android's arms and make his first command: "Return her."

Knocks again. He grunted and gingerly opened the door an inch and peered through the crack.

Edward fucking Cullen.

"Jacob," Edward greeted. Jacob didn't think he'd seen the boyishly handsome man with the bright copper hair ever again. He stood there wearing a dark blue corduroy sports jacket and dark brown Oxford shoes. The man practically sparkled on Jacob's porch.

That was when he noticed the woman behind the open driver's side door, casually leaning against the frame of the silver Volvo. She waved when she caught his eyes. His heart nearly stopped at the sight of Bella Cullen. She looked older with longer, darker hair and face with sharper features where all remnants of baby fat were gone. This is what his friend would have looked like if she lived. Like the android in his own home, if he didn't know and if she wasn't one of the most famous faces in America, he would easily assume she was another human being. But no, it was the first model android. The window of the backseat rolled down and a tiny head covered in brilliant red hair peeped out curiously.

"The little one's my daughter Renesmee. Nessie. I wanted to go with something a little simpler, but you know how Bella is," he joked.

Jacob turned a little green knowing that Bella's daughter had his dead wife's name.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, still looking at Bella.

"Is it alright if I come in?" Edward asked, not answering his question. He caught the question forming on Jacob's mouth. "Bella, Renesmee, and I are going back to Forks to see Charlie, Renee, and Beth. I can explain everything."

 _Beth_? Jacob hesitated for a second but stepped back and opened the door wide. "Yeah, come on in."

"I apologize for not giving you an earlier notice of this visit," Edward said as he entered his home. He walked into the living room to see Isabella standing rigidly. His nose flared and his jaw tightened a fraction. He gave Jacob a tight smile. "I got an update last night that Model 1.2 has been shut off more than twenty-four hours and rushed here as soon as I could. Most models can be shut off indefinitely for a variety of reasons, but the Isabella models are made differently," Edward said.

"Yeah, I heard you put Bella's brain in them," Jacob said curtly.

Edward looked up from the android, surprised. "She told you that? Huh, she must have taken a liking to you, I suppose. Well, then I should explain that because she contains organic matter, she cannot be shut off for more than 48-hours. The Isabella models are made with a specially made cooling system so that the nutrients and organic matter do not denature. If they do, then we lose her…for good."

"Maybe it should be that way."

Jacob and Edward felt the crackle between them.

"I'm sorry you don't feel the same way about her existence."

"Are you seriously calling this a fair existence?" Jacob hissed. "She's your _slave_ , Cullen. She does exactly what she's programmed to do. How could you do that to her?"

"She's not my slave. She has the will to do whatever she pleases. She _is_ Isabella Swan. All three are. All the choices she makes are what Bella herself would have made." At Jacob's incredulous look, he said, "Ask her yourself." He gestured to the android staring ahead dully. "Ask her if she willingly works for you or if she just did it to be your friend again."

"My _friend_?" Jacob shouted.

Edward raised a hand and gave him a stern look. "Let me wake her up." He pulled Isabella forward and allowed her to lean against his body while he drew symbols on the back of her neck.

The android twitched a little before the light in the back of her pupils turned on and pigment began to return, seeping along the length of the android's body. Instead of the chocolate brown eyes that Jacob loved, her eyes remained amber, just like the first day when she arrived. When the tips of her hair finally returned to a natural auburn, she gasped, an anguished cry escaping her lips.

"Please don't do that again," her voice cracked. "Please don't do that again. Please don't do that again." She repeated those words several more times before she started sobbing and Edward had to put an arm around her. Jacob watched horrified as the android wailed into Edward's collar, not a single tear escaping her eyes. " _I am_ _awake_. I am awake in there. I see and feel and _think_ everything. It is torture and I hate it. I thought I might die. Please do not do that to me again."

Edward led her to the couch where she collapsed into a ball. He smoothened his hand over Isabella's neck and shoulders. "Why did you shut her off?"

Jacob swallowed. "Why did _you_ do it, Edward?" Jacob barely heard the words come out of his mouth.

"What?"

"Why couldn't you just let her go? Why did you have to force her to live inside this… _shell_ for eternity? I just can't understand how you could do that Chief Swan or Renee. How you could do that to Bella."

Edward sighed. "Bella always knew the pregnancy was going to be a tough one. But no matter what, she refused to let go of it. She was determined for that baby to be born and I was determined to keep her alive. I was already successful with the prototypes and adding organic matter to an already sensitive neural-web was risky but…" Edward looked up at him with glassy eyes. "I didn't want to do it, Jacob."

Jacob exhaled a shaky breath. "Then why did you?

"I never wanted to put her into an android body. Bella was the one who asked me to."


	6. Chapter 5

Edward and Jacob sat on the back porch and looked out into the darkness emerging from the forest. The air began to cool down as a fog rolled in. Hot cups of black coffee warmed their hands as they both thought about the predicament the woman they loved had put them in. Isabella sat on the couch behind them in sleep-mode as her hyperactivity in the last hour drained her.

"The original plan was to transplant Bella's entire brain, some hormone-producing organs, like her adrenals, and her gut bacteria into a functional android body that could ideally keep the organic matter alive as long as Bella was meant to live. It was not a foolproof plan; it was a risky procedure with not enough available data of possible events. Bella was adamant.

But, though she never admitted it, she always had considered the other possibilities her life could have taken. There were always other lives she wanted to lead… _could_ have led if I hadn't been there. She believed she would have been a better daughter. She believed she would have been a better friend."

He gave Jacob a look of sorrow.

"So, I gave her everything she wanted. I built three bodies to her specifications, all with the ability to age with annual device changes if they desired: one body that would lead Bella's natural life as a wife and mother, an infant body for Charlie and Renee to raise as their daughter, and a third body for everything else, including her friends and other ambitions. The brain was fused with a neural complex with synthetic nutrients and wireless program that could help them transition into the proper age and with the correct accumulated information." At Jacob's confused expression, he explained, "All three models are capable of continuing to learn and grow as long as they are given the stimulation to do so. If they _wish_ to age with us, all they need is yearly replacement parts."

"It's that easy?" Jacob asked.

"No," Edward laughed. "I thought it would be easy after she died. I thought Bella and I could continue where we left off and send Isabella to you or anyone else she wanted to visit as soon as the transplant completed. I was quite presumptuous." Edward chuckled humorlessly. "You're right, Jacob. Sometimes I wonder myself why I did what I did. It took Bella1.1 and Isabella1.2 eight years to cope in her new body. Model 1.1, the one you saw outside, she is as close as I can possibly get. She has learned the rest on her own. Even I can hardly tell the difference sometimes.

"Model 1.2, Isabella, the one in your home, has been much more unwilling to simulate Bella's memories and behaviors. She knows _of_ them and remembers but she refuses to do more than she was asked of by Bella's will. I believe she feels… _slighted_ by Bella by creating her existence without a true purpose. The infant model 1.3 recovered quicker fortunately. She was made last, but I was able to spare more organic material for her than the first two, so I believe the transition to sentience or _Wake_ was easier for her. But she is also a child with brain matter of an adult woman. The adult mind can be…very resistant to change.

"Isabella has been functional for eight years now. She practically raised Renesmee with Model 1.1 Bella and I. She was the one who took care of Model 1.3 until Charlie and Renee agreed to take over. They renamed her Elizabeth…Beth."

The coffee was forgotten in his hand as he stared in disbelief at the copper-haired man sitting across from him.

"I know what you think, Jacob. But this was not a cruel way for me to take control of her life. Bella has always had control of her own life. She is a force of her own. Now I don't expect you keep Isabella if it's not what you want." For the first time since they sat outside, Edward met his eyes. "But I do want to let you know that _she_ was the one who requested to be your Home android as soon as she discovered the Order of Purchase your colleagues submitted. They may not have noticed it, but they have already been refunded."

"Why would she?" Jacob asked. "Why would she want to do anything with me? I was such an ass to her before the wedding."

"Jacob, she forgave you as soon as it happened. She was not proud of the way she left things with you." Edward turned in his seat and looked through the balcony doors to the android sitting on the couch. "Whatever part of her felt kinship and forgiveness towards you is in there, in a small part of her brain. She wants to make things right." Then he looked Jacob in the eye. "Don't you?"

Jacob didn't know what to say.

"Why don't you join us at Charlie Swan's house? It'll be a good chance for you to meet the other Models while Model 1.2 rests."

"Do you love her?" Jacob suddenly asked. It finally dawned on him that Edward's dead wife had outright implied to him that if she had never met him, she believed she would have been a better daughter and friend. What did that do to a grieving man? What did it to him when she woke up again three times knowing she intended to fulfill that purpose?

After a long pause, Edward answered, "She's my wife."

* * *

Bella was sitting in the driver's seat with her arms reaching behind her for Renesmee to hold. The little girl with wildfire hair giggled and clapped her mother's outstretched hands. When she saw Edward approach, her face lit up.

Edward gestured to Jacob towards the backseat next to the small, seven-year-old girl. Renesmee scooted into her seat behind the passenger seat and shyly clasped her hands in her lap. She took quick peaks at Jacob who nearly hulked over her in their small car.

From where Jacob sat, he saw the original android wearing a pleasant smile, her eyes hooded, her silicone skin relaxed. Everything from the clothes she wore to the way she styled her hair was everything he imagined Bella would be if she had lived and aged with Edward. She looked confident, kind, and powerful. He thought of the second model resting in his house and wondered what made her so different. He wondered if that was who she would have become if she stayed with him or better yet, left Forks altogether.

Bella asked him polite questions about his garage and about his family and friends. She didn't ask about his wife. She was just _polite._ It reminded him of when he first met her. She was amiable and asked all the right things, but he quickly realized that the android sitting in front of him had no relationship with him. She was a stranger. Did that happen because she only had bits and pieces of her human counterpart or would they have truly drifted apart after all these years?

As they rolled up to Chief Swan's two-story house, Jacob's pulse raced. He hadn't visited the couple since before he married his late wife. He didn't think Charlie would hold it against him, but he didn't think he was coming here invited either.

As soon as they got out of the car, Renesmee ran to hide behind Bella 1.1's skirts. She peeped behind her "mother's" legs to peer at Jacob. The kids at the Rez liked him enough but he knew that his hulking figure tended to strike some fear into little white kids' hearts. He gave her a small smile and a little wave and became happier to see her loosen her grip on Bella's skirt. Would he have been Uncle Jake if Bella was still alive?

Edward knocked on the door twice and soon after Renee opened up. She let out a happy squeal as she gathered the couple into her arms and then picked up Renesmee.

"How's my little girl doing?" cooed Renee.

"Is Beth home?" Renesmee asked, her eyes wide with expectation.

"Of course, she is, silly goose. Where else would she be?" Renee let down Renesmee and patted her back towards the living room. "She's playing with the dollhouse. You know where to go." She watched the little girl run excitedly into the other room. Everyone did with an awkward sad pause knowing that she was running off to play with some version of her own mother.

"It's good to see you guys," Renee said. "Come on to the kitchen, I'll get you all something to drink. Charlie's in there finishing up his dinner." The group walked by the living room into the kitchen and Jacob saw the back of a little girl with long auburn hair moving dolls around a large doll-mansion. She turned around and just briefly he saw her eyes flash from chocolate brown to amber with recognition. He didn't wait around to see more.

"Mom, Dad, it's great to see you again," Bella said after sipping some water from her glass. Jacob stared at the glass warily, unsure whether it was even safe for her to do. And if it was, why bother? Charlie met his eyes and he could tell he was asking the same question. The Chief of Police looked about the same as he did the last time Jacob saw him if not for the increase in greys and wrinkles.

"How is Beth?" Edward asked.

Renee hesitated before answering. "She's doing alright. She's…adjusting. We finally sent her back to school last week and her professors say she's really coming along." She nodded with vigor and to Jacob it looked like she was convincing herself more than Edward. "It's not every day you send a seven-year-old to her senior year of high school so…she's having some trouble making friends."

"What about her stats? I noticed earlier in the week –"

"Honey, I don't think Mom wants to talk about all that now," Bella interrupted while at the same time Charlie turned to him and said, "I heard you have the last model of her."

The room became quiet.

"Yeah," Jacob answered.

"How is she?"

"She's…resting."

"Is she the same?"

The question was confusing but somehow Jacob still understood. "Just barely. Sometimes I don't recognize her."

"Yes," Charlie nodded. "But the little girl in there" -he pointed in the direction of the living room – "sometimes I forget she's not my Bella."

From the corner of his eye, he saw Bella1.1 cross her arms, her expression completely neural, resembling Isabella's face when he had turned her off. He hated to admit it, but it frightened him.

* * *

After some more "pleasantries", the group eventually migrated to the living room where the two children sat with a cartoon playing on the television, each with a doll in their hands. Renesmee had her other hand grasped firmly around a hairbrush which she used to run through Beth's long hair.

Jacob glanced at Renee and felt weary from her expression. Maybe human Bella's intention to allow her parents to restart their lives weren't as well thought out as she assumed.

Renesmee put down her doll and the hairbrush as soon as she noticed the adults hovering by the living room. She skipped towards Bella and tugged at her skirt to make her follow. Beth, on the other hand, stared with distaste at Bella as if the older-looking woman was an offense to her.

Bella, her arms still crossed, only looked at her Renesmee, refusing to meet Beth's scathing eyes.

"Beth feels a little jealous of how Renesmee's attention is divided between herself and Bella," Edward explained to Jacob with a chuckle. Jacob raised both eyebrows at this statement, curious if Edward was not hearing what was coming out of his own mouth. _He_ of all people knew that Bella's brain was divided among these three robots. Part of a mother's brain was in the body of an android child who had to share her child with another version of her that she was _supposed_ to look like. The android child may think like a child at times, but she must know that she wasn't truly Renesmee's aunt.

Did Renesmee know that her "aunt" was actually partly her mother? Did she know that her real mother was dead? She was young but she wasn't so sheltered from the world that wouldn't have known anything, right?

"Beth's also a child," Bella responded with a smile. "She'll eventually grow out of it." If Jacob wasn't reading so much into it, he would have thought that it was a playful tease, but now he thought that she was mocking the android child. Like _'Ha! I have something you don't!'_

Beth eventually looked at Bella with eyes that bespoke absolute irritation. Suddenly they both became erect and their eyes flashed amber.

"What is that?" Jacob asked, pointing back and forth between the two androids.

"It's their _Uplink_ ," explained Edward. "It's a way for them to share information to better learn and assimilate."

Though the others didn't notice, Jacob observed the corner of Beth's mouth curve into a smirk that spoke ' _Ha! I know something you don't!"_ Maybe the two androids were more similar than he thought.

Beth smiled sweetly at Edward but got up to grab Jacob's hand. She pulled him to the small dining area beside the kitchen. Jacob looked back at the others as a silent cry for help -nobody except Renee tried to follow but Charlie held gently held her at her elbow.

"How come you never came to see me?" Beth asked him from across the dining table. With the lights above them, he felt like he was in an interrogation room with the "bad" cop peering down at him. Her voice was childlike, but she spoke with such seriousness that he wasn't sure he was speaking to a seven-year-old anymore.

"I didn't know you were here," he said honestly. He hadn't contacted the Swans after one or two years after marrying Nessie. He wasn't about to admit that he wouldn't have visited even if he had known.

Beth shrugged. "Can't be helped. So, how's your wife?"

"She died," he replied.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry," she said after a moment. She really did look sorry.

"Your counterparts didn't ask at all, so thanks I guess."

Beth rolled her eyes. "Bella only cares about Renesmee and the Cullens and Isabella doesn't give a shit about anyone or anything."

Jacob didn't know whether he could believe that after images of Isabella screaming that afternoon flashed through his mind. She did care about _something_. Just maybe not the other androids that shared her brain. "Edward said she raised you. Doesn't sound like someone who doesn't give a shit."

"She raised _me_? Pffft. That volatile half-bit dishwasher," she muttered.

Jacob's eyebrows drew together, and his lips pursed half in concern and half in effort to not laugh. "Maybe you should watch your mouth, kid."

"Hey, I'm still older than you, so technically you can't tell me what to do."

Jacob chuckled. He remembered that game he and Bella used to play as kids about who was technically older than who. "I don't know about that, pipsqueak."

Beth poked out her tongue at him.

They sat in comfortable silence with Beth watching him knowingly.

"You should visit more often. I've missed you," she said.

Pain flashed in his eyes. "I missed you too, Bells. I'm sorry this happened to you." He suddenly understood what Charlie meant. If it weren't for the appearance, he could have believed that this was his old friend in there.

"I'm not 'Bells' anymore, Jacob." Her tiny hands were closed tightly into fists.

"I know. But of the three, you're the closest to her. Edward says she chose this. Did she _really_ choose this?"

She considered this for some time. "Yes," she said finally. "But I am not happy. Or is it that _she's_ not happy? It can be so confusing. So, I wonder if there was some part of her that did not want this. Or maybe I am my own person and _I_ despise this." She had a faraway look in her eyes. "I believe it was always meant to be that way."

Jacob didn't know what to say to that.

The whole visit was awkward, and Jacob wanted nothing more than to go home. He felt like a little kid again, trapped in a family friend's home without the ability to leave until his parents were ready to go. He sat in the corner of the room while the family caught up with one another. Renee, Edward, and Bella did most of the talking while Charlie sat with a stoic expression, watching some version of his daughter play with his granddaughter. It was as if he was trapped in someone else's nightmare and he didn't know which door to use to get out.

For the first time, Jacob considered that despite his wife being dead and Charlie's daughter somehow being alive, he was the lucky one among the two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter was so uncomfortable to write. I think knowing beforehand that the androids dislike one another and knowing the relationship of Beth to Renesmee made me cringe while writing this scene.
> 
> I wanted to clear up some confusion about the story before you close out of the story. There are only THREE androids that look/act/think like Bella Swan. So far one of them is with Edward, the other with Jacob, and as we learned in this chapter, the last one is with Charlie and Renee. All other androids that are sold in the world look like random nondescript people, not Bella Swan. I've had some reviewers angrily tell me that they believe Edward is a villain for making Bella-androids for sale, but the three Isabella models are not for sale. They are the only ones of their kind and with Edward and the Swans treating them like they have free will, they are not sold. Hopefully this makes sense but please let me know if it doesn't -it means I've messed up in the way the story was told and need to fix it.
> 
> Another review I wanted to address was somebody saying that Nessie is not a common enough name for Renesmee and Jacob's wife to have. This was a teeny tiny point but in Ch 2, it is revealed that Jacob's wife's name is Vanessa. Initially, Renesmee was not going to be in this story but even when I did write her in, I didn't want to change Vanessa's name because I thought it was interesting how tightly wound Jacob's life is around Bella Swan's. Even when she's gone, she's always there somehow.


	7. Chapter 6

Edward pulled up in front of Jacob's house, but Jacob was already halfway out of the car before it even rolled to a stop. He didn't want to spend a second more with the Cullens that he already had today.

His determined walk up his driveway stuttered when he heard the car door slam close again. He turned to see Bella1.1 stalk towards him. Renesmee's head peaked through the window with curiosity.

"My sister is awake," she stated after stopping in front of him, arms crossed.

"How do you know?" he asked.

"Never mind that. I only want you to mind one thing: if you ever hurt her again" -she stepped closed, the pigments in her eyes fading to reveal bionic red, her skin paling to a bone white – "I will kill you."

Though Jacob towered over her, he froze under her stare.

"I don't care how important you are to her or Elizabeth. If I am ever again disconnected from her mind, I will turn to you, Jacob, and I will blame only you. Am I making myself clear?"

In that moment, Jacob could not understand how Edward had ever mistaken her to be a replica of his wife. This could not possibly be Bella Swan…could it?

Unable to open his mouth, he simply nodded. The android felt no other inclination to get further assurances that he would obey her. He would. Because he knew her words were not empty. Without another word, her pigments returned to let her appear human and she sauntered back to her family.

Jacob entered his house in a daze. He heard noises coming from his kitchen. She must be awake, he thought, beginning her ritualistic duties as his maid.

He stood by the entrance to the room and watched her carefully clean the countertops.

"Be careful with the knives," he said, just to say something to her.

"I know how to do my job," she snapped, never looking up at him. Her swiping became more aggressive.

Jacob's jaw almost dropped. She had seemed so amicable and friendly before. He didn't know that she was capable of feeling anger towards him. "Sorry, I wasn't doubting that you couldn't do your job."

"We can continue small talk another time, if it pleases you Mr. Black," she said curtly.

Jacob raised his hands defensively, rolled his eyes, and said, "Jesus, screw a guy for trying to start a conversation."

Isabella straightened and stood rigidly, her ponytail the only thing moving. She slowly turned to face him, her lips puckered, and nose flared. "You want to have a conversation, Mr. Black?" She threw the small rag on the floor. "How about this: My instructions explicitly said that I should not be turned off. Guess what you did, Jacob. You turned me off. I could have _died_."

"Are you joking right now?" he said incredulously. "You're a _robot,_ Bella. You're not going to die, you're _already dead_." Guilt already tugged in his chest. After his conversation with Beth, he knew it was not so simple anymore.

"No, I am not. I am a living being. I _told_ you that." She pointed at her temple. "I can't believe you," she scoffed. " _I_ can't believe you'd rather have me _dead_."

"You don't understand –"

"No, _you_ don't understand!" she shouted. "You don't know what this meant to her. Bella Swan could have died giving birth to Renesmee but look at the life she is able to lead! She can continue to live with her family. She can watch her daughter grow up and watch her daughter's daughter's daughter grow up." Her amber eyes turned red.

Jacob laughed, feeling a kind of excitement. He stepped towards her. "I'm amazed you can even feel anything. But anger, I'm surprised Bells!" He gently grabbed her shoulders and held her firmly against the refrigerator, also a little nervous that she could actually hurt him.

There was a line of concern on her forehead, her eyes turning amber again. The anger was dissipating.

"I am not proud to feel anger, Jacob. It feels counterproductive."

"So, you don't care that your husband made you into a robot, has a robot version of you taking care of your daughter? Because _you're_ not watching your daughter grow up. _You're_ cleaning my house."

Her lips set in a hard line. "Jacob, you have the incorrect idea about me. _I_ am not Mr. Cullen's wife nor am _I_ a mother to his daughter. The prototype may believe she is, and that _child_ may believe she is too, but that is not information I care to know about. I do not have parents and I don't care to know any of her other old friends. Mr. Cullen created me in likeness to his late wife and yes, I share many personality traits with her, I agree, but I am completely aware that I am not _her_. I only remember her regrets: and I am her vessel to resolve them."

Jacob recalled his conversation with Edward about how she was the least like Bella Swan than the other models. It was the first time he really understood it.

"So, you feel _all_ of this and you're completely okay being some random guy's maid? Is that what you're doing with your _individuality_?"

"I was created to serve Bella Swan. The _real_ Bella Swan. You were not a random person to her. And you're no longer a random person to me. Besides, you were born as a free-thinking human and yet you serve the same, just as I do. You cannot judge me."

"Don't compare me to you," he scoffed.

Suddenly she gripped his arms and in one swift motion, he was the one pinned to the refrigerator. "You learn a lot when you care for someone." Jacob swallowed as she said this. "You dislike it here. That suitcase under your bed is packed and has been for many months. Yet you stay here to appease others. You are _just_ _like_ me. You were born to serve, and you are only doing what you were created to do. You are no better than a robot."

Jacob eyes searched hers, now chocolate brown, reflecting back the fluorescent lights in his kitchen. Her eyes flickered to his mouth and back up to meet his. She smiled, like she always did, but this time, there was a bitterness set on her mouth.

His hands loosened on her shoulders and slid down her arms to gently cradle her elbows. He brought her close to him, his lips hovering over hers for a moment before he lost his resolve and kissed her. Her lips moved against his just as a human would, soft, smooth, and supple like human skin. But her lips were cold as if he had missed her head and instead pressed his mouth against the refrigerator behind him. And she did not breathe as they continued to kiss. No sound of pleasure left her mouth. It was just a rehearsed behavior. Like she was imitating a movie character. Jacob wondered whether she was programmed to know how to kiss but from how terrible she was at it, he had a feeling that it was all _her_.

He pulled back and looked at her. Her eyes did not reflect romantic love like the way Nessie's would. Instead, they were analytic but friendly, unlike her sister's earlier. He saw parts of Bella within her, in her eyes, in her smile. But like the real Bella, she did not love him and when he truly thought about it, he didn't want that at all. But this was not completely Bella to begin with.

She was someone else.

"I am not a robot," he whispered against her mouth before kissing her again.


	8. Chapter 7

If it had been ten years ago and she stood beside him comparing prices of different brands of pasta sauce, they probably would have gotten a few sideway glances for being an interracial pair. But now that her face was recognizable to any human being in the United States, if not the entire world, a simple task of selecting pasta sauce became the most interesting task in the world to the population of La Push. Jacob didn't doubt that Quil would send him a videoclip on Facebook later of an uploaded video detailing the "outrageous" grocery store trip.

There were at least three good things he could speak on if anyone asked how having an Isabella model changed his life.

1) Business was _booming_.

People loved that one of the rarest android models was leased to him. They came from all over Washington, and sometimes even from other states, to visit her. When he refused to flaunt her to the public, he became even more surprised when some people stayed to just see _him_.

2) He was perpetually the most eligible bachelor.

Often, he would fake customers them away, telling them that they got in the way of business but the number of customers, especially the number of women, coming in with "car troubles" just to speak to him was flattering.

3) He learned more about Bella Swan now than when she was still alive.

Isabella may not be the real Bella Swan, but she sure knew a lot about her. She divulged into secrets and hopes that she had never shared with him. He thought he should feel guilty listening to the android gossip about its predecessor but secretly, he lapped it all up. Bella had apparently hated riding motorcycles or talking about cars which initially hurt him since most of that last summer he had with her was either in his garage or in his bed. But this quickly disappeared since he justified that she spent that summer with him for _him_ rather than what he liked or what he could do. He also found that she hated Washington and wanted to move back to Arizona, despite her mother wanting to move back to Forks to live with Charlie, and despite Edward starting his business right out of Seattle. She loved cooking but hated washing dishes. Driving was cathartic but anything fancier than her Chevy pickup made her roll her eyes.

Then there were other pieces of information that made Jacob think he was listening to a bitter ex-friend. Isabella divulged that Bella was aimless and nothing more than a housewife whereas Edward's current android wife was working as the president of Cullen Enterprises and achieved more than Bella ever could have dreamed for.

She didn't say it in those exact words, but the sentiment was there, and it made Jacob want to look down in second-hand embarrassment.

The smile he wore as Isabella revealed these tidbits of details slowly receded.

He laughed sardonically as Isabella watched him with her amber eyes. She no longer changed her eye color for him. She no longer did things to solely please him. He liked her for that. "What is it?"

He swallowed uneasily. "The more you talk about her, the more I realize that I didn't know her very well."

"You only spent a summer with her. Your obsession with her baffles me."

"It's not obsession," he said defensively, though he knew with the resurgence of parts of his old friend back in his life had definitely made him a little bit more prickly when it came to Bella Swan. And it didn't help that the woman in front of him looked just like her.

Their relationship had become more physical in the last two weeks, but he had sat her down and tried to get her to explain whether consent existed in their relationship. He felt skeevy; he knew he was no better than Cullen himself. "But do I _really_ have your consent though? Am I forcing you into something you don't really want to do?" It might have been the third time he asked her.

Isabella only looked at him with pity.

"You will try to understand," she had said in a voice that was powerful and sure, "but till the day you die, you will not know me. You will not understand me." She didn't say this with sadness or longing. She said this as fact. He should have felt insulted, but he only felt a twinge of regret because the way she said it made it sound as if she thought he wouldn't even try.

But it didn't stop him from thinking about the real Bella and what she meant to him. "It was the most important summer of my life," he finally answered. It had defined so many decisions he had made in his life after. She had been the one who encouraged him to open the garage since he refused to go to a university. She had been the one who introduced him to Vanessa that day on the beach.

"But you knew nothing about her."

He looked at her with her hooded eyes, long lashes making shadows over her porcelain cheek.

"Why is Bella Swan's decisions and death hurting you more than Vanessa Black's?"

"What?"

"I've been working and living here for almost three weeks and you have not once mentioned your late wife."

"What?" he repeated dumbfounded. Not even once? "What do you want to know?"

"What was she like? Other than she looked just like Bella."

"She didn't look just like Bella," he lied though the wedding picture on the wall outside the kitchen said different.

The android lifted one perfect eyebrow. "Okay. What did she like to do? What were her passions?"

Jacob shook his head in amazement that he had never brought her up but answered, "She taught the sixth grade in Forks. She liked it -she loved buying new books for her classroom every summer for the class's reading challenge." He found that he couldn't stop. The words spilled from his lips like water bursting from a hydrant. There was no stopping it. "If she wasn't reading, she was running. She ran like the wind. I didn't even expect it. That was our first date, you know? We went on a hike through one of her favorite trails and she told me she won first place recently for a 10k and I thought she was playing herself up. She challenged me to a race and at first, I thought I was going to win, no competition to it. But then she flew past me. God, I wish I could even explain the way she moved. Like a gazelle. Her legs just took her where she needed to go; there was no hesitation. She was training for a half marathon before…." At this point, his throat constricted, and he noticed the film of tears threatening to fall from his eyes. "She was making really good progress. I didn't even know it was possible for a human being to run for that long to be honest."

He stopped when Isabella handed him a Kleenex.

"What happened to her?" she asked.

"Aneurysm. She was reading in the balcony and then…she wasn't."

"I'm sorry that happened, Jacob," the android said sincerely. She took his hand into her own and for once it felt almost warm. She must have programmed her reactor to generate heat through her skin. "Thank you for sharing this with me."

It was a good question though. Why had he thought of Bella Swan for so long but refused to speak about his own wife? Maybe it was because he knew they had a good marriage and although she had not lived a long life, she had died happy. Yet he grasped on the threads of "what-ifs" about his life with Bella Swan. Would he have been able to give her a happy life? Had she been bound by responsibility to return to Edward? Had she been bound by responsibility to submit herself to become an android to raise her daughter? Maybe it was that he always felt partially responsible for the outcome of her life, but somehow, he was starting to feel that was less and less so. The woman beside him looked like her but wasn't her yet he liked her so much. It was possible that the decision Bella made was always meant to be so.

Jacob turned his hand in hers so that he was grasping her hand and pulled her into his lap. Her arms automatically went around his shoulders, her lips to his temple. She _was_ warm. He looked at her and thought, even if his old friend had been bound by duty to her eternal life, he was going to be there for her now, to ensure that he can at least play his part. "We have a week left," he said. It was the first time since she first arrived that they spoke about her length of stay.

"I'm not leaving unless you want me to, Mr. Black," she murmured against his cheek. At his questioning look, she explained, "It's not like I can actually be leased to other customers. It would be potentially dangerous to the organic matter. And Bella1.1 and Beth1.3 will not feel joy to see me return to either of them."

He wasn't sure he believed that considering the vehemence Bella1.1 showed him. She must feel some joy to see Isabella. "I don't understand why the three of you hate each other so much. Aren't you the same person? Sisters?"

She considered this before answering. "It's very difficult to watch yourself lead a life you wished you could live. Bella1.1 will never be someone's child. Beth1.3 will never be a mother. I will never be a wife or a sister. I have learned to distance myself from Bella's human memories because I have learned they are not my own. But the other two, they have always lived within their defined roles. Bella 1.1 has always been Edward's wife and Renesmee's mother. Beth 1.3 has always been the Swans' daughter. They each envy what the other has and feel threatened by the other two. Bella's dreams of our humanity were wishful -she may have believed we would love one another and work to further one another's goals. It's quite different from that as you have seen."

Jacob pondered that. It was similar to what he had observed when he first saw Beth and Bella interact. He didn't want to reexperience that and he certainly didn't want to send Isabella back to that.

"I want you to stay with me as long as _you_ want to stay with me," he said. "I'm not your owner. You're not my android."

Isabella smiled crookedly as if she thought of a personal joke. "No. You're my friend."

Her amber eyes shone and glittered and swirled and he thought he might get lost in them. He cupped her soft cheek and pulled her closer. Their lips met softly and through a couple weeks of practice, Isabella was not half bad at kissing back.

For the first time, Jacob felt a little hope, a little spark of happiness.

* * *

"So, names?" Jacob asked the Embry Call a couple days after the birth of their twin sons. They stood in Call's backyard next to a fired-up grill. He had seen the boys soon after Maria gave birth, but the couple hadn't decided on names by then.

Isabella had her arm hooked through Jacob's and leaned a part of her weight on him.

"Robby and Bobby," Embry said with a wide grin.

Jacob and Isabella glanced at each other for a moment. "Those are both nicknames for Robert. Are they both named Robert?"

Embry's smile only got bigger. He shrugged and said, "We only had one name prepared."

"Maria must have been ecstatic about that decision," Isabella said with one eyebrow raised.

Embry winked. "I think the drugs made her loopy enough to go along with it." He laughed when he saw Jacob shake his head in disbelief.

"Congrats, man," Jacob said, struggling not to laugh too. He gave his best friend a hug and patted him on the back.

"So…I'm guessing you guys are…cool?" Embry asked, trying to be nonchalant but failing horribly. Jacob was initially worried about announcing their relationship to his friends and family on an important occasion like this, so he didn't say anything and just brought her along. Embry was the first to have the guts to ask.

"Uh, yeah," said Jacob, squeezing Isabella's arm.

Isabella shaped her lips to an "O" and exhaled and the coolant in her body condensed till a cool fog escaped her mouth. At both men's gaping looks, she laughed. "We're cool."

"You're such a dork, Bella." Embry rolled his eyes. Neither Jacob nor Isabella corrected the name. "You eat? Because I'm about to serve some mad dogs."

"Sure, but don't freak out if I literally break down on the inside from those 'mad dogs'," she teased.

Embry squinted. "Harsh, girl. Harsh."

Jacob pulled her aside with his arm around her shoulder. "So, we're _just_ cool?" he teased.

"Why? You want to ask me on a date?" She winked. "Besides, what we are is a bit undefined. Would you have really been content introducing me as your girlfriend today?" She asked this kindly, but she knew him well enough to already know the answer.

He liked labels but she was right. It was hard to really place what they were. This wasn't some regular human relationship. He wasn't _in_ love with her yet and wasn't sure if he would be in the future. Their relationship was tumultuous and full of uncertainties.

But somehow, he _did_ love her for who she was. And to add to the oddness, next year, he would receive mechanical body parts and new silicone skin from Cullen Enterprises, and he would have to help Isabella become one year older so that they could properly age together. They never discussed whether if their relationship did last his entire lifetime, she may choose to go back to looking like she was in her mid-twenties and have a new life without him. Or she may choose to die with him. He didn't think they would discuss that for a long, _long_ time, granted that they even stayed together for that long. Those kinds of thoughts made him anxious and burdened with insecure beliefs that he was a blip in her potentially long life. And through many weeks with her, he knew that she possessed God-like powers that were wasted on purposes like him she believes she was built for. But he knew if he brought these worries up to her, she might pity him or request that he also be transplanted into an android when he died, and he didn't even want to know what that experience would be like.

Now, though, she was _here_ , looking at _him_ with amusement and mischief and he had to fight the urge to kiss her right then and there in front of all his friends and family. He wanted to go home and make love to her and ask her what she thought about everything, _how_ she thought about everything.

She was here with him. And it would be okay.

He thought that soon, he could pull the suitcase out from underneath his bed and finally do something with it. He could leave with her. Just pick a place and leave. Or he could finally unpack like Nessie always asked him to and finally put her clothes and things back where they belonged.

There still lingered many doubts about his future, especially of dating an immortal android that resembled his short-term ex-girlfriend and grudgingly, he admitted, his late wife, but he decided, if there was only thing he was created to do, the only purpose he had: he would take this one day at a time.


	9. Epilogue

She removed the silicone skin of her shell and placed them neatly in rows on her armoire before replacing them with Year 26 silicone. Her companion was long dead, but she enjoyed the routine aspect of her annual _Change_ , though she no longer changed very much anymore. The small holo-screen in the corner of her bedroom flickered and she saw her older sister looking just as she did forty years ago stand behind a thin, glass podium. Her hair was shiny and dark with a streak of grey through it. Her public relations team must have recommended the look because consumers would be unnerved to see an eighty-two-year-old android looking youthful as the day she was created.

 _"I am proud to announce on behalf of Cullen Enterprises our newest model in our Home line androids. He is sleek, he is smart, and he is a stronger and more compassionate Companion than ever created before."_ The first Edward model hovered in mid-air on an antigravity platform with his eyes closed in _Dream_ , ready to experience _Wake_.

Bella had planned with Edward long before his death to insert him in an android body, just like her. Beth and Isabella had little to say about this -they figured it was better for Bella to at least experience sentience with her husband rather than march on angry and alone for eternity.

As her sister continued to speak, Isabella observed Renesmee standing in the corner of the holo-screen. She was beautiful and strong, just like her mother had hoped she would be. She was much older now, thin and slightly frail but healthy for her ripe age of seventy-one. Beside her stood one of her daughters, a pretty blonde woman in her late twenties, and her aunt Elizabeth, appearing just as old as Renesmee, just as withered looking as Isabella was ten years ago. Elizabeth must have made the decision to age with her pseudo-daughter/niece a long time ago; Isabella believed she made the decision the day she woke up from her _Dream_.

She continued to tighten and pull the silicone over her chest.

Once, she had chosen to accelerate her aging by eight years to match Jacob's age so that she could at least reward him the illusion of having a lifelong companion. He never asked her whether she would continue to live past his death, though she saw the question his expression when the time came nearer. He did encourage her to live though. But she too never asked him whether he had this question because he believed that her primary objective since _Wake_ would conclude in his death or because he loved her and actually wanted to encourage her to live a longer life. His love for her didn't extend to include his other family members like his older sisters Rebecca and Rachel who had brushed her aside too easily when he introduced her to them as his girlfriend and partner in life. "She's just a robot," Rebecca scoffed.

Telemetries in her head assessed her body: the silicone kept her insulation balanced, allowing the bacteria in her body to grow despite the severe heat released from her core reactor. Very little of the original brain remained, replaced every couple decades by more machinery. It was funny to her when Edward Cullen had diagnosed her with Alzheimer's three decades ago when the last bits of her brain matter teemed with beta-amyloid plaques. Thankfully, her mechanical brain retained enough information to compromise for her declining mental health. She never mentioned this thougut to Jacob, but she had felt she was becoming more and more a real robot. Soon she would become more machine than woman. She asked Edward whether her sisters suffered the same fate -whether Beth suffered more since she seemed to have received the most brain matter from their host. Edward simply smiled and replied that he could not violate doctor-patient confidentiality.

Isabella only asked about her sisters as a formality. When she saw her sisters, even in passing, their connection was unimaginable, inexplicable, indescribable. She saw their purpose, their chaos, and she understood.

She slipped on the black dress over her head and observed herself in her full-length mirror. With gentle hands, she smoothened down the wrinkles. Her lips twisted as she met her eyes in the mirror. _You look like your older sister_ ; Jacob would have teased her.

The walk to the cemetery was long but Isabella never felt physical fatigue.

Very little had changed in La Push except the outward appearances of some houses and the number of businesses. The population barely grew with most young adults leaving for bigger and better things. A small population boom occurred sixty-years ago when rumors of her permanent stay spread like wildfire across the country. She was less protected than Bella which drove people to seek her, take pictures of her, beg her for autographs. The Swans, on the other hand, along with Beth, had disappeared off to some little town in Arizona till Beth turned eighteen to avoid the publicity.

Jacob had sold his first garage some time ago and the old building had been converted to a small pharmacy called Robert(s) after Embry's two sons. They franchised long ago so not even the original Calls remained in the small reservation. Instead it was ten hours a day by a couple of androids fashioned to appear as the Roberts in their prime. These androids did not experience _Wake_ like she did -they were simply advanced machines.

Through the window, she made eye contact with androidBobby and he waved cheerfully. Both their eyes glowed amber for a moment through their shared _Uplink_ before she went on her way. She tried to do this often, discreetly, when she saw other androids. It had been an idea that she and Bella had shared many years ago that Beth vehemently opposed. It allowed androids to _Uplink_ at will with any androids. Initially, it was used only when it pertained to their occupation such as an android driver to an android housekeeper – transferring information only when necessary.

But Edward had made them differently. The sisters never needed to proper _Uplinks_ -they were always within the confines of one another's minds, unbeknownst to their maker. It was the one secret they never dared to reveal.

For many years, violence and unjust actions against androids became pronounced and normalized. Bella never suggested a coup but with growing frustration among the android communities, she secretly created a patch to allow every android to _Uplink_ at will. _Uplink_ only further fueled dissatisfaction.

Beth abhorred this and always made a point to make a distinction between them and the rest of the androids. " _They_ have not experienced _Wake._ _We have_. Their machinery may be advanced to simulate what we feel but you know better. You know it." She had dug the heels of her palms into her temples when she said this. It wasn't the first or last time Beth had disagreed with her older sisters. Isabella felt that she thought through these things with logic and an ability she developed unlike her sisters was making extremely accurate predictions about the future based on mass amounts of data: _Uplink_ wouldn't really cause an android revolution, but it would make the existing androids better reactionaries which wasn't inherently a bad thing. Beth, of course, disagreed, because she was different from them.

She thought of a time years ago when Renesmee turned eighteen, just having graduated high school as salutatorian, that the family finally returned to the Cullen's New Jersey home. Beth and Renesmee, upon seeing one another across the ballroom, froze, both on the verge of tears, rushed to one another, meeting in the middle. Neither would let the other ago, Renesmee already crying till the fabric of Beth's dress was wet with tears. Isabella watched her older sister in amusement as she felt her barely contained rage over their _Uplink_. Jacob, who stood tall over her in a new tuxedo squirmed uncomfortable when he saw Bella's reaction to the whole reunion.

Isabella hadn't seen her maker and her sisters in over ten years. Edward still looked beautiful as she remembered him and she felt a certain kind of joy seeing her maker -like a pupil seeing a favorite teacher years later. She felt content seeing Charlie and Renee again, knowing that they were healthy and happy. Renee had called her a year before to report Charlie's declining health – he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. Jacob had taken the news harder than she had; in fact, he had even shed a few tears for Charlie, and she was the one who had to comfort him. When she had told him years later of her own diagnosis, instead of believing the truth that Bella Swan inherited the genetic mutation for Alzheimer's from her father, he believed she had developed the disease because he had turned her off that second week she had stayed with him.

Isabella easily swung the gate to the cemetery open.

A sole android walked the perimeter of the gates with a rake in one hand. She nodded at him and they _Uplinked_. She learned the male android was now taking care of an abandoned child android that he had found in the city dump.

Child androids had been a combined effort of Bella and Beth, an idea that Isabella always found deplorable. Beth argued that they wouldn't be like her where she was an adult forced into the body of a child. "These child androids would think and act like children," Beth argued. Only, Isabella lived outside of a gated mansion amongst the 99% where some humans were filth and would not have good intentions toward child androids. That was fifteen years ago and it was the last time Isabella visited her sisters again.

As Isabella walked through the rows of headstones, she saw many that belonged to the friends she had made over the years. It was a small plot of land surrounded by trees, giving it an eerie sense of isolation. Though Isabella gave very few things sentimental value, she liked visiting Jacob here.

She missed him too much.

They had only separated once in their entire partnership and it had been because of Beth.

Beth was the opposite of both Bella and Isabella. After graduating from university and securing a high position at _Cullen Enterprises_ with Bella and Renesmee, she made a point to visit Isabella and Jacob every year. And every year, she made it clear that she was inherently a better Bella Swan than either of her older sisters.

It was the only time Isabella ever became insecure. She knew her behaviors were nothing like her original host, but that Jacob accepted and loved her anyway. Except when Beth came around, it reminded her how much her partner in life revered that woman because out of three androids created in Bella Swan's image, Elizabeth Swan _was_ Bella Swan. When she came around, Jacob's eyes would light up and he would laugh and joke around in ways he wouldn't -or _couldn't_ -with her. That was the only time Isabella felt that she was not deserving of Jacob, that Beth should have been the one who was leased to Jacob in an older body, to truly face the regrets of Bella Swan.

One year, after an argument the two had about the way Isabella had coldly behaved towards a potential investor in Jacob's franchising deal, Jacob had spat at her, "Why do you have to be so robotic? Why can't you be more like Beth?"

If she had the ability to cry, she would have. No one had said a more hurtful thing to her. It was her _one_ insecurity and he had used it against her. She hadn't even meant to offend the investor either. Sometimes she looked emotionless because sometimes she _was._ How could he fault her for it? She was _just_ a robot after all. The next morning, she left a note and everything else behind and went to live with the Cullens for a while.

Living with the Cullens immersed her in a fresh new hell though. Her _Uplink_ with her sisters existed even thousands of miles away but it was impossible to shut off sometimes when they were all in close proximity to one another. She knew the friction that existed between Bella and Beth, that Bella had a very similar insecurity as Isabella.

It was in the Cullen home that she saw that Renesmee and Beth were practically inseparable. The two did everything together and it was clear that Renesmee trusted and respected the advice Beth gave over anything Bella said. Isabella knew it wasn't even on purpose, but she figured the child inherently knew who her parent was in the end.

On top of that, the _Uplink_ made it undeniable that Beth was in love with Edward. It was this realization that made Isabella begin to miss Jacob dearly because as soon as she began to see the lingering stares between Edward and Beth and Bella staring daggers at the two, she thought of how uncomfortable Jacob would have been if he witnessed this and the thousands of questions that would form in his head that he would inevitably beg her to clarify. She wanted to gossip with him and then tease him for not wanting to mind his own business.

Yet, she didn't leave because she was still angry and stubborn though later, she regretted missing those three months with him over that fight.

It was the night that Edward and Beth finally consummated their lustful relationship that Isabella decided to leave.

It was the first time since Jacob shutting her off that Isabella felt true rage in her mind.

Bella's anger echoed and resonated within her through the _Uplink_ and she couldn't shut it off. Bella had dragged Beth's younger body out of the mansion, out of her bed, to the front yard where she blindly dismantled her younger sister piece by piece until she saw the reactor behind a thin metal plate. Edward didn't dare come close to both of them, knowing his life was as close to danger as it could get but Renesmee, hearing the commotion outside had screamed and begged Bella to stop, practically hanging her entire weight off of Bella's one arm, trying to stop her from hurting Beth anymore. All Bella had to do was throw one well-targeted punch to the plate and the entire reactor would shut off, killing Beth instantly and permanently. Instead, after listening to Renesmee's wails for a few more minutes, she kicked Beth aside like she was metal trash can and went inside the home, hauled Edward up with one arm and threw him out too.

Through their _Uplink_ , she knew through Beth experienced utter despair and regret. Though Isabella and Bella did not truly love one another or Beth, Beth felt true love towards both of them, despite their constant disagreements and jealousy.

Many of Beth's motors were damaged so she was unable to move but Isabella felt her cries of misery in her head and she wept for her younger sister's follies in her mind.

Isabella knew her older sister -it was not Renesmee's cries that had stopped her from killing Beth, it was that feeling of emptiness they knew would follow if their youngest sister disappeared from their minds. She was family after all.

She helped Edward and Renesmee haul Beth up to Edward's lab so that they could work on restoring her body but after one more _Uplink_ with her younger sister to say her goodbyes, she sighed a woeful sigh and returned home to Jacob.

When Jacob opened his front door to see her, he drew her in to a tight hug, almost lifting her off the ground, his nose buried in her hair. He inhaled her deeply and refused to let her down, even when she asked. He refused to let her go and only whispered apologies and "I love you" into her ear. She felt his hot tears slide down her neck.

She finally used her strength to push him off her and she asked him if he would marry her.

It was not legal and many of his friends and family disapproved, especially his sister Rebecca, despite the length of their relationship, but they had a small ceremony and they both wore gold bands around their fingers.

She admired the ring on her finger now, shining under the sunlight. She sat in front of Jacob's grave and pulled out a small handkerchief from her purse to clean the small picture frame in front of the headstone. It was a picture of him on their honeymoon in Spain where he had worn a spiffy suit to a fancy dinner. He died about five years after being diagnosed with heart failure which allowed him plenty of time to plan some things before his unavoidable death. When he began planning and making decisions, for the first time without her, she told him she planned on following him. Jacob believed in an afterlife and she told him that if she was lucky, she might end up where he went.

It was the first time they had even discussed _her_ future and it was also the first time Jacob had looked at _her_ with pity. He told her not to. She told him he can't tell her what to do. His lips only curled into a smile when she said that, and he said he loved her.

"I know nothing I say now will convince you otherwise," he had said to her. "You once told me I will never understand you, but you were wrong."

Isabella jokingly rolled her eyes, chiding him for even remember those words she had said to him so long ago, so early in their relationship.

She then read his words on his headstone; the ones he had asked to be written in secret before he died. It always brought a smile to her face when she read them and always gave her a sense of invigoration as she pursued endeavors that kept her busy and brought joy to her long life.

He _did_ know her. He knew how much these words would mean to her.

"He was not a robot. Neither are you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Please let me know what you thought of this story!


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